Main Street, U.S.A Fun Fact

Main Street, U.S.A Fun Fact

You may or may not have noticed, that the entire length of main Street, U.S.A is bordered by red pavement, almost as if the red carpet had been rolled out for you. Well it has been, when creating Main Street, Disney consulted Kodak and they determined that one particular shade of red would enhance guest photographs. So thank you Disney and Kodak for making sure our vacation photos look fantastic!!

Sushi Sunday Pt. 2

My family and I LOVE sushi and when I say we love it, I mean we really really love it!! So when it comes to Disney we pretty much know where we can go to get our fix of it. Here are some of our favorite places to get this yummy Japanese dish.

The first place we are going to talk about is Tokyo Dining in the Japan pavilion at EPCOT. Now Tokyo Dining does require reservations, so make sure you have reservations if you decide to eat here!! Okay at this restaurant there is no shortage of sushi. They have over 20 different options you can choose from. One of my personal favorites is the Combination – Matsu, if you’d like to know more about that you can check out my last post. Another aspect of this restaurant I absolutely adore is the ambience of it. Tokyo Dining has a sleek look about it and is very modern.

Next up is a hidden gem that often gets over looked in my opinion. I say that because my family and I have been to Disney World roughly nine times and until recently know what it was. Turns out it’s a nice little quick service restaurant called Katsura Grill and it is also in the Japan pavilion is EPCOT! Now unlike Tokyo Dining you don’t need reservations in order to eat here which is amazing! The only thing is, is that they only have four things on their sushi menu, but what they do have is excellent! I’d also recommend that if you do go here try some of the other things on the menu, but we’ll get into that another day.

Another one of our favorite places to get this tasty treat is at Sunshine Seasons in the Land pavilion at EPCOT. Now I know this doesn’t seem like the most obvious place to get sushi, but trust me if you love sushi just as much as we do then you’ll adore the fact that you can get it here. Plus you don’t have to make the trek all the way back to the Japan pavilion just to get you some, you’re welcome! Anyway just like Katsura Grill you don’t need reservations to eat here and they don’t have many options on the sushi menu, just the basics: California Roll, Spicy Roll and Vegetable Roll, but they are really good!

The last place on this list is 1900 Park Fare at the Grand Floridian Resort which is near the Magic Kingdom. One thing you should know about 1900 is that 1. It does require reservations and 2. It is a character meal. What is a character meal you ask? Well what that means it that there are certain Disney characters at this particular restaurant Cinderella, her stepsisters (Anastasia & Drizella), Lady Tremaine and Prince Charming (swoon) are walking around and will stop at your table to chat, take pictures and sign autograph books as you dine. One other thing this is a buffet and the food here is excellent and the assorted sushi is delicious!

There are other places on Walt Disney World property to get sushi, but we have yet to try them all. When we do try them though I will be sure to write up a review and let you guys know how it is and if the places live up to all the hype! So until then keep on eating weird and uncooked fish!

What's New Wednesday

I'm back! With that being said, I want to start a new series or theme for Wednesday and this new series will be called...What's New Wednesday!! 

What's New Wednesday will be a weekly roundup that consists of all the new happenings coming and going at the Walt Disney World Resort. I will cover everything from attraction closings, refurbishments, character meet and greets, which characters we'll be saying so long to (whether it be for a short time or for good), restaurant's, events and all those other things we need to know about in order to have the best vacation ever at The Happiest Place on Earth!

Magic Kingdom Fun Fact Friday

The Magic Kingdom is full of hidden gems and fun little secrets to discover. Through the day I will be posting and talking about all the different tidbits about the different lands in the Magic Kingdom. Now hopefully these will be fun facts that you don't/didn't know already, so lets get started!

Welcome Home Wednesday!

I love going home and at Walt Disney World, home for my family is Disney's Old Key West Resort! Old Key West opened on December 20, 1991 as Disney's Vacation Club Resort. Then in 1996 it was renamed to Disney's Old Key West Resort and has the largest rooms out of all the DVC (short for Disney Vacation Club) Resorts, which is fantastic!

Every single one of the hotels on Disney property have a theme, so what is the theme of OKW? The setting of OKW is turn-of-the-century Key West. As soon as you get there your ears get filled with the sounds of steel drums, Jimmy Buffet songs and you feel as if you are in the Florida Keys on a tropical getaway. You instantly feel the weight of the real world lift off your shoulders and the relaxation vacations begins.

One of the really cool things I love about OKW is that it itself is a community called Conch Flats. They even have their own general store called Conch Flats General Store, a restaurant called Olivia’s Café and a little bar called the Gurgling Suitcase. If you’re looking for a bite to eat, but don’t feel like cooking something in your room or going to the park then definitely try out Olivia’s its delicious and the staff is wonderful!

If you’re DVC members like my family and I are, then you’ll get what I’m talking about next. Like I said before, OKW is its own little community and if you go back every year you get to know the people who work there. You get so used to seeing them and you even become friends with the cast members that work there. One cast member that stands out to me is Robert from the Gurgling Suitcase. Every night when we’d get back from a long day at the park, my dad would head off and go get a Bloody Mary and he did this pretty much every night. Well over the course of the week, my dad and Robert learned quite a bit about each other,  became best friends and after our trip their friendship became “Facebook Official” (you ALL know what I mean by that lol). So it really is a home away from home and those who work there truly do become your second family and it gives you something else to look forward to. Let me tell you that that, is just another example of Disney magic!

Frontierland Tips & Tricks

Frontierland takes you all the way back to the American move out west during the 1700s and the 1800s. From the beautiful mountain ranges, raging waters, unexplored caves and abandon forts there is no shortage of fun to be had here by all.

The first tip I have is for one of the most popular rides in Frontierland and that is Splash Mountain. AS most of you know there is a fifty percent chance that you will get DRENCHED on this ride. Well if you’re not a fan of walking around in wet clothes fear no more, I got you covered! The first thing you can do is put an extra set of clothes in a couple of plastic bag (or one of the big Disney merchandise bags work wonderfully) and then change after you get off the ride…OR you could just sit on the left side of the log. What? Sitting of the left side of the ride? Yup if you sit on the left side you’ll still get a bit wet, but you won’t get as wet as what you would if you sat on the right.

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad is another extremely popular attraction in Frontierland and because of that the line tends to be very long. If this attraction is one of your must dos then my suggestion would be to hit this ride during the Festival of Fantasy parade! I’m telling you to do during the parade because most families will be watching that, which means you will have little to no waiting and it is magical!!

The Country Bear Jamboree is one of the less popular attractions, but if you’ve never been on it before check it out! One thing though is that if you do decide to watch it, just know that this attraction opens at 10 a.m. everyday even though the rest of the park opens earlier in the day.